European Citizens Initiative

One Million Signatures for the Minorities

On 3 February 2017, the EU Court delivered the judgment in the case of the Minority SafePack Initiative against the European Commission. The Court held that the decision taken by the European Commission in September 2013 to reject the registration of the Minority SafePack Initiative was unlawful.

According to the judges, the Commission failed to comply with its obligations to state reasons by not indicating which of the measures contained in the proposed initiative did not come within its competence and by not setting out the reasons in support of that conclusion. As a result, the citizen’s committee was not able to identify the proposals set out in the annex of the Minority SafePack Initiative which, according to the Commission, fell outside the competences of the Commission, or to know the reasons which led to that assessment.

More than four years ago, the members of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) started preparations for a European Citizens’ Initiative. The project is the most important initiative of the minorities in Europe in recent decades. Started with much optimism and political support, the initiative was taken before the European Court of Justice, after the European Commission rejected the initiative in September 2013. According to the European Commission, the proposed initiative fell “manifestly outside the framework of the Commission’s powers”.

The Minority SafePack Initiative, which was submitted by a high-profile citizens’ committee, was elaborated by a team of experts and contains a set of measures and concrete legal acts (laws) for the promotion and protection of the European minorities and the regional and minority languages.

In a unique action of solidarity, the minorities wanted to collect one million signatures for diversity in Europe. Together we would succeed to show the decision-makers in Brussels and in the Member States of Europe that we are here, we are many, and we want to influence and be involved in decision-making.

The European Commission took the decision to register the Minority SafePack Initiative. The Commission’s initial decision from 2013 to deny registration of the initiative was annulled by the General Court of the European Union in the beginning of February this year.